Daily Archives: December 24, 2009

Please accept without obligation, express or implied, these best wishes for an environmentally safe, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, and gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday as practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice (but with respect for the religious or secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or for their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all) and further for a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated onset of the generally accepted calendar year (including, but not limited to, the Christian calendar, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures). The preceding wishes are extended without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, political affiliation, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee(s).

Not that yet another reason is needed to predict with absolute confidence the eventual failure of the “mission” in Afghanistan, but here’s one anyway: It seems that during breaks in fighting, the vast majority of Afghan soldiers enjoy nothing more than to smoke hash and randomly fire their guns at nothing in particular.

As independent war correspondent David Axe has noted, “All Afghans smoke pot — especially in winter, when roads are snowed in and nobody’s working.” All fine, but a situation that poses a bit of an obstacle to the spurious notion of “training up” the Afghan National Army and security forces…

Perhaps NATO and the U.S. government should simply buy the Taliban and the Afghan Army Xbox 360s and Call of Duty, then they can get stoned and play each other all night long without actually hurting anyone.

As featured on the Rachel Maddow show last week, Aspect Film & Video, an online marketing company in the U.K. (whose slogan is “Rage Against the Mundane”), has cleverly spoofed Fox’s awful 24 hrs. drama with the “enhanced interrogation” of Santa Claus.